Improved apparatus for carbureting air



' UNITED ASTATES OFFICE.

J. F. BARKER, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, AND C. N. GILBERT, OF NEWYORK, N. Y.

IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CARBURETING AIR.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 93,267, dated'August 3,1869.

attached to said tube,

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, J. F. BAKKER, of

, Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, andG. N. GILBERT, of the city, county, and State of. New York, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for Oarbureting Air;and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings,making a part of this specification, and to the letters of referencemarked thereon,in which- Figure 1 is a vertical section of a carbureter,through line R S of Fig. 3. Fig. 2 is a vertical section of acarbureter, with the top removed, through line U V of Fig. 4. Fig. 3 isa partial plan view of a carbureter. Fig. 4 is a plan view of the upperchamber, the top being removed. Fig. 5 is a vertical section of the gagethrough line W X of Fig. 6; and Fig. 6 is a front elevation of the gage.

Our invention relates to that part of the apparatus used for carburetingair or gas, called the carbureter or generator; and it consists in theintroduction ot a tank or reservoir into said carbureter, through whichreservoir the circulating duid shall pass which heats the carbon-oilcontained in the general tor 0r carbureter, said reservoir providing thenecessary space orroom for the expansion of the circulating duid, andcausing it to circulate more freely and equally; and it also consists inprovidinga tube, secured to the outside of said carbureter,the interiorpart of Vsaid tube communicating withlthe interior of each chamber inthe carbureter, through suitable apertures made in the side of thecarbureter, near the bottom of each chamber, and also in .said tube,said -apertures being opened and closed by means of proper valves forthe purpose of drawing the contents of said carbureter from any upperchamber into anylower one; and it also consists in providing the saidcarbureterI with a gage, which,being made all in one piece,longitudinally, is attached to the outside of said carbureter, toindicate the height of the duid i'n each chamber of the carbureter.

In Letters Patent. of the United States No.

l 66,7 77,* granted tous July 16, 1867, a process was therein describedforkheatin gV the duid Vcontained in the carbureter by means of a heatediluid circulating in pipes placed within the carbureter, butin practicewe have found that the expansion of the circulating iiuidfrom the heatnecessitates more spaceor room than merely that furnished by the pipesalone, which were arranged in the carbureter, as shown and described insaid Letters Patent. n

It has been found upon trial that, after repeatedly filling thedifferent chambers of a carbureter with hydrocarbon oil and thenvaporizing the same as far as possible, a residue remained which was tooheavy to be readily converted into vapor or illuminating-gas suffihcient to give much light at the burners, and, as it accumulated in thechambers, (as it could not be used in all the chambers with anyadvantage,) it had of course to be removed and thrown away. Y

To save this heavier and more worthless oil, and to use it morethoroughly in the extraction of all itsilluminating qualities, we haveprovided a tube with valves and apertures therein, so that by openingany two of them direct communication is made from one chamber to anotherthrough said opeiiings and the pipe, so that if any thick or heavyresidue should remain in an upper chamber, such, residue may be drawnfrom said upper chamber into the lower one, making room in .said upperchamber to put in lighter and more easily evaporated oil.

Thatothers skilled in the art may be able to make and use our invention,We will proceed to describe its construction and the inode of itsoperation.

In the drawings, A represents the carbureter, having the chambers A BB', the general form and character of which is now well known. d is thepipe for conducting the heated circulating fluid, .and having theradiator Ein one or more of the chambers. `In

the upper chamber we place ia cylindrical-v shaped vessel or reservoir,l), which is made tight, and opening outward only throughthe .valve C,through which thecirculating duid isplaced in the said reservoir. 4

The circulating pipe or conduit d enters' or -communicates with theinterior of said reservoir through the orice at b, and also at b',

one being at the lower and the other at the upper part of saidreservoir. This reservoir might be placed in any one of the chambersWithin the carbureter, but we prefer to place it in the upper one.

To the outside of the carbureter A we attach a hollow box or tube, L,having the orices c, c1, and c2 therein, corresponding with similarorifices made in the side of the carbureter, said orifices being made inthe lower part of each chamber in the carburetcr. In this tube L are setthe sockets ln, nl a2, having a threaded hole made in each, throughwhich holes, and fitted therein, operate the threaded spindles m m1 m2,having the disks t' '111 i2 upon one end, and the hand-wheels l l1 Z2upon the other ends, by means oi' which they are operated. The disks t'i] i2 are properly fitted to their seats at said orifices, so that whenthe threaded spindles m m1 m2 are turned in tightly, with the disksagainst their seats, the said orifices c c1 c2 shall be securely closed,so that nothing can pass through said orifices into the tube L.

The lower end of thetube L maybe made open, with a screw-threadimadetherein, into which may be tted the nut f, for the purpose of drawingoft' any residue which may remain in the lower chamber, and which cannotbe used at all.

The gage N consists of a hollow box or tube,

having the transverse partitions o o therein,

with the vertical apertures t in the front part, to the frontof whichbox or tube N is secured the plate s, having corresponding elongatedvertical apertures therein, a plate or plates of glass, with suitablepacking, it' necessary, being placed Vbetween the front of the tube orbox N and the outer plate s. The partitions o odivide the said tube intoany number of compartments, according to the number of chambers intthecarbureter, and also according to the number of partitions o o in thetube. The holes i frz, duc., are made in the back side ofthe tube,corresponding with the holes e el, Src., made in the side ofthecarbureter, at the upper and lower part of each chamber.

The general form and construction of the carbureter alone is the same,or is similar to that described in Letters Patent granted to us, ashereinbef'ore mentioned.

Having thus described the construction of our improvements, we will nowproceed to de scribe the operation of the same.

rIhe circulating liuid having been filled into the reservoir D throughthe valve O, said valve is closed, and heat being applied to the coilplaced outside and away from the carbureter, (the pipe d passing' outthrough the aperture a', and connected to the lower part of said coil,the upper part of said coil being connected, by a pipe, with theaperture dand pipe d,) the said duid, as it becomes heated in the saidcoil, rises therein and enters the pipe d in the carbureter at theorifice d', passes up through the radiator E, and enters the reservoir Dat the upper aperture b. Ample spacefor the expansion of the fluid isfound within this reservoir, and the iiuid accumulating within saidreservoir, its own weight assists in forcing it out through the loweraperture b andw aperture a into the lower part of the coil,

when it again becomes heated and rises as before.

This constant circulation causes the hydrocarbon oil in the carbureterto become heated to a general uniform temperature, and to give oi' morevapor than it would do if it remained at a lower degree of temperature;and if the lower chamber or chambers in the carbureter contain a heavierand less volatile oil than the upper chambers, said heavier `fluidbecomes heated most, as it is nearer the point or coil where thecirculating fluid is heated, and is caused to give off a greater amountof vapor than it would otherwise do, and, as the air in passin g throughthe carbureter passes through the lower chambersiirst, the maximumamount of said vaporv from said heavier fluid is absorbed by the air, sothat, as the air passes up into the upper chambers, a less amount ofvapor from the more volatile oil will be required to be absorbed toattain the required illuminating-power at the burners. t

If the oil in any of the upper chambers should, after remaining thereinsufficiently long to become heavy, and give off too little vapor to giveto the gas a sufficiently strong illuminating-power, it may be takenfrom the upper chamber and placed in the lower one, by simply openingthe orifice c by turning-out the spindle m, and if the lower orice c2 beopened at the same time by turning out the spindle m2, the oil will runfrom said upper chamber down the tube L and into the lower chamber, and,if the valves be then closed, fresh hydrocarbon oil may be placed intheupper chamber, and the heavier oil in the lower chamber may then be madeto give oi` a greater amount of vapor by heating it to any desireddegree by means of the pipe d, and the air, as it passes in contact withthe heavier oil in the lower chamber, will absorb its maximum amount insaid lower chamber,l

and will absorb or require so much less when it reaches the upperchambers.

The great advantage of this arrangement will readily be appreciated whenwe consider that gasoline, for instance, when placed in a carbureter forthe purpose of manufacturing illuminating-gas therefrom has a specificgravity of abut 80o or S50, and when it has been reduced by evaporationto about 680 specic gravity, it will no longer give off sufcient vaporwithout the aid of a greater degree of heat to produce a proper light atthe burners; and, consequently, hitherto it has been found necessary todraw off such oil as is reduced to a specific gravity of about 68C andconsider it worthless for thepurpose of manufacturing illuminating-gas.

By our arrangement we arev able to change it from an upper to a lowerchamber withoutexposing it outside the generator, and, as it `is thennearer the heating-coil, it is i made t0 give oii more vapor thanbefore, and the air, in passing in contact with it, absorbing suchvapor, we are thus enabled to use up more completely and wholly thatwhich has heretofore run to Waste. v Y' As a means of indicating theamount ofoil in each chamber, the common gage has been employed, havingonly one compartment, with' two holes therein, communicating with thechamber7 one at the upper part and one at the lower part of the chamberand gage. When these are used singly they occupy too much space, andcannot well be used one directly above another, and when there are manychambers in a large generator too much of the outer surface ofthegenerator has to begiven up for the attachment of these single gages.

By our arrangement we are enabled to manufacture a series of these gagesin one, or in one piece, so that each single compartment is .directlyone above another, and the series, or the whole gage as we term it, doesnot occupy more space than is necessary; and we iind that we canmanufacture the series of gages in one piece more cheaply than we canmake the same number of our compartment gages separately; and ourimprovement in this respect consists only in combining two or morecompartments in one gage.

ticular form of the tube may bewhether prismatic or cylindrical, or whatmay be the particular kind of valve used, as many different kinds mightbe used which would produce the same result. Y

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

l. A carbureter having the reservoir D placed therein, and used inconnection with the pipes for the circulating heating-Huid, allconstructed and operating substantially as herein described and setforth.

2. The arrangement of a tube, L, with a carbureter, wherein theapertures opening from the lower part of each' chamber of the carbureterinto said tube are opened and closed by valves, said tube with itsvalves operating to draw the contents of any upper chamber into anylower one, or to draw said contents of any one or of allof said chambersentirely away from the carbureter, substantially as herein' describedand specified.

3. A gage, composed of two or more compartments, and having one or morepartitions, o, therein, the same being made in one piece, with acorresponding front plate, s, also made in one piece, the wholeconstituting a series of gages, and all constructed-and operatingsubstantially as and for the purposes herein described and set forth.

J. F. BARKER. o. N. GILBERT.

Witnesses:

T. A. CURTIS, E. J. SOMMER, W. STANLEY, WM. T. B. SroBMs.

